atlas CopCo Center of exCellenCe sets itself apart for water well ...

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With the potential of such a huge untapped resource so close to the high-demand markets of the East Coast, the Marcellus Shale formation has become a huge opportunity for drillers across the country, including Keane & Sons Drilling of Bradford, Pennsylvania. Established in 1973 by Joe Keane, Keane Drilling Company drilled its first well in the Appalachian Basin with a 24L spudder. Soon after the purchase of his first work over rig in 1982 his sons, Shawn and Kevin, entered into the workforce and starting taking over the day-to-day operations. Today, Keane & Sons Drilling Corporation has a fleet of seven drill rigs, including six Atlas Copco RD20s, three of which are currently drilling in the Marcellus Shale formation. In 2008, these six rigs drilled over 470 wells. 18 PreParing tHe site Currently, Keane & Sons is drilling wells for oil and natural gas exploration and development companies. According to Shawn Keane, Marcellus operators are strategically drilling wells to ensure their leased acreage is held. It is believed that each well that is drilled secures the lease on 640 acres, and ideally exploration companies secure contiguous pieces of property. Once the well is in place, exploration drilling can proceed at a later date. To set the process in motion, Keane arrives on site with their Atlas Copco RD20 and sets surface conductor pipe to depths ranging from 40-150 feet; occasionally this work is Conductor pipe, also referred to as drive pipe, is a large diameter pipe used to prevent unconsolidated soil from caving into the hole as the upper portion of the well is being drilled. “It takes less than a week from the time we set up to the time we’re off location. In comparison if you were to do that with a conventional drill and set it up over the conductor to do the same work, you couldn’t afford to operate that massive equipment cost-efficiently. You couldn’t be competitive.” —Kevin Keane contracted to other companies. This gets through the unconsolidated soils at the surface. Then they drill the water string with a Secoroc QL series hammer. “We’ll set casing and cement that back to isolate the fresh water zones,” says Kevin Keane. Then they will drill to approximately 1,000 feet and run the intermediate string, which is also cemented. This shuts off any cross contamination. “Finally, we’ll drill to the kick point; we’ve been ranging from 3,500 to 6,000 feet in that range,” adds Kevin. Keane’s RD20 and support equipment only minimally impact the site and they are in and out quickly. “It takes less than a week from the time we set up to the time we’re off location,” says Kevin. “In comparison if you were to do that with a conventional drill and set it up over the conductor to do the same work, you couldn’t afford to operate that massive equipment cost-efficiently. You couldn’t be competitive.” Keane’s work ends where the horizontal drilling begins – a job that requires a much larger rig. “You won’t see the RD20 doing the large Marcellus wells,” says Mike Hetzler, manager, Rotary Drill Sales, Stockdale Mine Supply. “The RD20’s range is approximately 6,500 feet or less. Once you’re at the outside edge of the ability of that machine, larger equipment would be needed. That’s why the Predator line was developed.” The RD20’s maximum pullback capability of 120,000 pounds, however, makes it ideal for the vertical predrills to prepare the site. “An exploration company can save a lot by having Keane come in and do this surface drilling, and a big reason Keane uses the RD20 is because it’s basically a simple and therefore very reliable design,” says Hetzler. Keane also uses a DTH hammer to drill the wells, which also minimizes the impact on the
photo illustration of RD20 drilling in Marcellus Shale. Set conductor pipe 40 - 150 ft. DTH drilling Secoroc QL 1000 ft. Marcellus Shale Kick Point 3,500 - 6,000 ft. environment. “A lot of drillers have come here from out West thinking they could drill the whole thing on fluid, and unfortunately for them, that was met with resistance,” says Hetzler. “The DTH hammer is neater and cleaner. There’s no fluid and no mud tanks. If this was a fluid hole, the rig would be surrounded by pumps, tanks and reservoirs to contain all the material. You’ve eliminated the need for that by using compressed air, which is faster, more efficient and therefore less expensive.” Hetzler explains that drilling a 6¼ inch hole with a DTH hammer is significantly faster than doing so with a tricone bit at the Marcellus Shale site. Although the cost of the pneumatic tooling is relative to the project and the site conditions, a tricone bit would be less reliable and less efficient, making a DHD with a diamond bit a better choice for completing the hole without worry of an unneeded trip to change bits. drilling tHe lateral legs Once the vertical well is in place, the conventional drill continues the drill string horizontally through the shale. Until recently it has Deep Hole Driller Shawn and Kevin Keane, owners of Keane & Sons Drilling, and Mike Hetzler, manager – Rotary Drill Sales, Stockdale Mine Supply, stand by the RD 20 as it drills another well at the Marcellus Shale formation. http://pol.atlascopco.com been difficult to extract the natural gas, which is trapped in the tiny fractures throughout the shale. Fracturing the shale is challenging. If it’s done incorrectly, the natural gas can’t be recovered from the avenue that’s been created for it possibly rendering the well unusable or too costly to operate. “They are still in the early stages of completely understanding how to fracture the shale right now. It’s still early on, but they are getting better. The results have been incredible,” says Shawn. Horizontal drilling exposes as much of these fractures as possible to the well bore for maximum extraction of the natural gas. In fact, there’s no comparison to a vertical well in the same formation. For example, a typical singlestage vertical well might produce about 200,000 cubic feet a day. However, horizontal wells have been reported achieving initial flows anywhere from 6 million to 12 million cubic feet of gas per day of production. The horizontal legs range anywhere from 3,000 to 5,000 feet. There might be anywhere from eight to 16 stages or perforations at different points on the horizontal leg, and the fracture will go up through these perforations. Determining where to place u 19
Page 1 and 2: an atlas CopCo publiCation for the
Page 3 and 4: Where to find ATLAS CopCo area City
Page 5 and 6: steve matiC will be the designated
Page 7 and 8: www.atlasCopcoMarketplace.com versa
Page 9 and 10: Deep Hole Driller Improved Classics
Page 11 and 12: alluvial deposits in his vineyard.
Page 13 and 14: Deep Hole Driller Mustang hits the
Page 15 and 16: Other options on the Mustang includ
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Page 21 and 22: GettinG down the problems: as much
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